Archer/Guides/ARCHER SKILLS OVERVIEW + ANALYSIS
Archer The Archer is a well-rounded class that utilizes a bow/gun. Their physical and magical attack power is usually even, and they have a good chunk of MDEF to go with it. Though some claim the Archer is a hard class to play due to not specializing in either offensive aspect, you may find it enjoyable to be a neutral in-between against the hard hitting Lancers and Mages. * Archers have advantages against Lancers, but are vulnerable to Soldiers. * Credits to Berserker on the Ateam forums for providing the Archer skill guide below.''' '''OFFENSIVE SKILLS Hunt * Reduces aggro generation when attacking * 15% chance of nullifying next magic damage taken for 10 seconds Necessary combo for most offensive archer skills Not much to say other than its a bread and butter skill. Will definitely be on your skill slot. Only 2 cost and 4 sec CD. This should always be used before using your attack. Its always nice to see 0 damage when an attack is used on you. Poison Attack / Poison Assault / Deadly Poison * Utilizes Physical Attack. * Always combo with Hunt for 40% poison chance. * Poison debuff cannot be stacked by one player. Ticks about 3 times. * Poison seems to be based off your a portion of your Physical Attack stat instead of their max HP. Opinion: Do not use. Although the damage is respectable, there are better skills. 40% chance is not that great. Does not seem to proc reliably enough. You might have to spam the skill 4-6 times before you it applies on a boss. (most seem to have a debuff resistance) And the worse of all... is that poison scales with your ATK not the enemy's HP. Damage is completely outclassed by High Circle Snipe and Lethal Strikes. Recommended only when doing augment/reforge events when you want a high AB attack. Always pair with Hunt for the bonus damage. Hunt + deadly poison and a high enough ATK can oneshot golden eggs and other high defense reforge/augment monsters. I would actually recommend replacing it with other Lancer skills on your bar if you're going egg hunting because Lancer skills have fast attack animation, assuming you have a high enough patk to crack the eggs. Charged Shot / Charged Snipe * Utilizes Magic Attack * Guaranteed debuff of 20% MATK reduction, situational usage. * Animation time is very slow, 3 seconds after you use it until it fires off. Prevents you from carrying out another attack because of the long animation. Opinion: Never eveerrrr use! Firstly, you are a archer, not a mage you should have balanced ATK stats. Damage is again completely outclassed by HCS/LS and generally not worth the ridiculously long animation and lame MATK reduction. High Circle Strike / Lethal Strike * 50/50 Physical Attack and Magic Attack * Moderate chance of missing your shots * Highest burst damage, fast attack animation * Bread and butter archer ability * Always combo with Hunt * +20% chance to crit when using a bow or gun These are your highest damaging abilities as an archer. HCS does 90 AP (with Hunt) x 4 that's 360 possible mixed damage LS does 80 AP (with Hunt) x 6 that's 480 possible mixed damage Note: Eagle Eye will bump up your crit chance for LS and HCS to 50%. VERY satisfying when you see 20-30k damage flying on your screen 6 times in a row - Currently the 2 of the hardest hitting single target abilities in the game assuming a few things: Enemy armor is broken or enemy armor is low and/or: weapon passives kick in to carry your stats over the enemy defense threshold. If you're facing a high armor target, the low ability power means it will not pierce through armor like a high one would, like Knight's Blitz. For high armored bosses, its not recommended in group play to burn through all your cost spamming your HCS/LS every second. Instead, allow the damage to build up so that the enemy armor gets broken. Once it is broken, you can easily get to max break because of the multiple hits you deal per skill. That is when you will be doing your most damage. It does miss. You will be sad when it does, but it hits 3-5 times reliably enough. Charged Rain * Physical Attack * 70 ability power * Hits 1-3 times up to 3 enemies * Does NOT combo with Hunt Do not use. Not a strong enough skill to replace any other skill slot, its also 15 cost, which is a bit expensive for what the skill does. Again, you should have balanced ATK stats which makes this skill pretty useless and outclassed by HCS/LS. At its worst its 210 AB split 3 ways, at its best its 630 AB split 3 ways. Cant really rely on all 3 targets getting hit all 3 times. Needs a slight buff to make it useful. Unaffected by Hunt. Marksman Abilities You can obtain Marksman after you have mastered the Hunter, Sorcerer, and High Lancer Ring. As well as obtain rank 48 to clear the Sub Quest required to obtain the Armlet to be promoted to Marksman. Imaginary Shot * Hits 5 times with either magic or physical damage. Randomly * Ability Power 80 * Does not require hunt!! A superior replacement to high circle snipe if you are going without hunt. Only downfall is that Deadeye, Archer skills do not effect this ability and can fall off in damage due to this. Recommended to use only if you have a lot of Fatal Bows otherwise, LS and HCS are better. Jinx * Hits 3 enemies * Magic Attack * Ability Power 100 * 50% Chance to curse target(Target cannot be healed while cursed) A decent skill, situationally useful in GvG where you block enemies' heals. Also useful in Tartarus Round 18 to prevent the bird from healing. Unfortunately, it can take multiple tries to curse target(s). A good ability to sweep easy targets though. Burkesnipe * Ignores target DEF/MDEF * Ability Power 110 * Takes long time to charge Better to use for crystal phase, and enemies who have high DEF, otherwise stick to LS, HCS, or Imaginary. Affected by Magic, Physical, and Fatal Testaments!! Wind of Courage/Poem of the Spirits * 20% ATK/MATK to party - Wind of Courage * 20% DEF/MDEF to party - Poem of the Spirits * Lasts 50 Seconds, Costs 25 and CD 40 Situational utility. Outclassed by Valkyries and cost is too high. UTILITY SKILLS Balancing * Removes buffs from all enemies. VERY Useful for Legendary Face off (Themaly Stage 6.7) or in Labyrinth when you face wave 18 and 20. when they buffs themselves, does NOT remove the regen or barrier. Will absolutely wreck a guild who spent their crystal phase time buffing each other. Use it if you know the guild you're fighting likes to stack buffs or just fired off 2 Valkrie Unisons (+80% all stats) Great utility ability which will likely see more use in high difficulty content, such as high AP event dungeons and whatnot. World Tree's Blessing * 5% (10% when passive is unlocked) every 5 seconds for 30 seconds for ally and its 2 adjacent partners. * Heals 30% (60%) of your max HP for up to 3 others. Very effective heal over time spell that is NOT dependent on your MATK. Great when recieving predictable moderate AOE damage. Excellent to use for "off healing". Healing Wind * Single target 5% heal (10% when passive is unlocked) every 5 seconds for 30 seconds. Outclassed by World Tree's Blessing. You are better off using Heal/Recover until you get World Tree's Blessing. Spirit Guardian / Soul Guardian / Wind of Courage / Poem of the Spirits * MDEF buffs (excluding Wind of Courage, which is ATK/MATK buff) SKIP. There are already many good summons with better party buffs. Hard to justify using this one. Wind of Courage is debatable, since it it technically a mix of Mage's Mystic Mastery and Lancer's Soul of the Berserker, but the cost is often too high and the buff itself is outclassed by Valkyries. CROSS CLASS ABILITIES MAGE Ether Exchange * Converts 30% of your current HP into 20 Ability Cost. Cannot use when HP under 31%. Get. Very useful skill and helps you become more self reliant. Recommended to be used alongside Recover or any healing abilities. CLERIC MASS REFRESH * Removes negative status ailments on party. Pick it up if you have a close cleric friend/guildmate who wishes to just use all his abilities on healing. You are now the designated cleanser of negative ailments. Skip otherwise because you are the damage dealer, not the cleric. PURIFYING LIGHT * Removes stat debuffs on the party Pick it up if you have a close cleric friend/guildmate who wishes to just use all his abilities on healing. You are now the designated cleanser of stat debuffs. Note: has a high CD timer of 60 seconds, so use it when you need it most. Same as mass refresh, get only if your team is premade otherwise, stick to recover or WTB. RECOVER * 60 Ability Power heal + removes status ailments. Recommended to use as it is a easy skill to heal yourself or your allies when necessary and also not difficult to obtain. CURE * 80 Ability Power heal + removes status ailments. Tier 3 cleric skill. Improved version of recover. Harder to farm. Don't make this a priority skill to get, recover will get the job done most of the time. SOLDIER HEAVENS BREATH * Increases max HP by 60% for 90 seconds. * Useful as a burst heal of 20k+ HP at max level if you havent cast it and are one hit away from death. Don't let the CD timer fool you, you still get 30 more seconds of the buff until it wears off. High priority skill to farm when you have your bread and butter archer skills. Keeps you alive longer. LANCER ATTACK STANCE * Adds +20 Ability power to your skills, but you take 25 AB more damage Great filler skill all the way till end game. Better off with Hunt. EAGLE EYE * Adds +30% CRIT CHANCE FOR 60 SECONDS * This skill paired with Lethal Strikes/High Circle Strike will give you a +50% crit chance. Amazing for showing off your damage. Situational utility. Will be less effective in hNot completely good as it is outclassed by Wind of Courage. urus can easily replace crit chance. Generally not good imo, as it is pretty expensive in cost. SOUL OF THE BERSERKER * Adds +20% ATK BOOST TO PARTY FOR 60 SECONDS * IT HAS MY NAME ON THE SKILL 3rd tier Lancer buff. Worth picking it as you're likely to farm the Lancer tree for the +10% ATK passive. Outclassed by Wind of Courage. SAVAGE STING * 150 Physical Ability Power + bonus to break Only use in PvE for break if you have no lancer to break for you. Otherwise skip, damage is outclassed by HCS/LS. BUILDS BEGINNER BUILD Hunt Circle Snipe, Poison Attack (replace with High Circle Snipe when you get it), Attack Stance (Lancer skill) This will be your highest DPS as a beginner. Attack stance is +20 ability power for your attacks. Use HUNT so that you wont be targeted frequently. GVG BUILDS: - Hunt, Lethal Strikes, High Circle Snipe, Heaven's Breath(Can replace with recover, cure or WTB) * This is a more defensive style build but you can replace Hunt with Imaginary Shot, Ether Exchange, Balancing,etc. - Ether Exchange, Imaginary Shot, Lethal Strikes, High Circle Snipe * For stronger players whose sole purpose is to burst down the crystal or the enemy. Eagle Eye can also be helpful but due to high cost, it is not recommended.(Outclassed if you have a lot of Fatal Testament bows) PVE BUILDS: Hunt, Lethal Strikes, High Circle Snipe, Recover (Can be replaced by cure, WTB, heaven's breath,etc) Lethal Strikes, High Circle Snipe, Imaginary Shot, Ether Exchange (Can replace an offensive ability for recover, cure,etc.) Purifying Light, Mass Refresh, Balancing and Cheer can also be used depending on situation. RECOMMENDED GEAR At level 75, you will have enough cost to equip 5 UR Weapons, 2 UR Helms, 3 UR Armors, and 4 UR Summons. (125/50/75/100) plus some 19 or so spare cost to place wherever else you like. As a DPS class, you are recommended to have 5 weapons to maximize your damage output as well as 4 or 5 summon slots to adjust and balance your stats. A fairly attainable goal to have would be have 18k ATK/MATK. * Archers gain a good bonus to their magic defense stat meaning you will not have to work too hard to have a decent amount. Unfortunately, archers do not gain any stat bonuses when using bows or guns. I personally had only 1 UR bow for a very long time. I had to supplement my offensive stats with Spears and Staves that had Physical and Magic Testament. There is nothing wrong with doing this. Do not be fooled by Archer's MDEF passive. It does not necessarily mean that you should focus on stacking that stat to boost your gear score. It will hamper your ability to properly play as an archer if you allotted a large part of your cost towards armor and helms. Heart of the Deadeye XL - Chance to massively increase effect of Circle Snipe/High Circle Snipe/Lethal Strikes Fatal Testament XL - Chance to increase physical and magic damage when using an ability Physical Testament XL - Chance to massively increase effect of physical damage when using an ability Magic Testament XL - Chance to massively increase magic damage when using an ability All 4 of these increase the damage you do with your HCS and LS attacks. They can be found in weapons, helms, and armors. It is recommended that you try to have a fair amount of Fatal Testament and Heart of the Deadeye gear if you can attain it. Even having the L versions of these skills will help. * Try to use your summons' stats to balance it out. * Do not underestimate the stat boosting ability of an SSR Passa. Having 2 or 3 in the early stages of the game can balance your stats out very well. Category:Archer Guides